Stranger Than Fiction: The Bizarre Journey of Kings of Leon

Rock Royalty: From Holy Rollers to Rolling Stone

First of all, I realize I am very late the the KOL party here. I paid no attention to the band at all. Heck, I thought they were from England.

But lately, my wife has been having a love affair with their music. She's totally in to it; maybe too much (I'm afraid she's going to accidentally call me Caleb one of these nights). So I started paying attention. The music of the brothers Followill is very very interesting. I hear all kinds of diverse influences blended artfully together. In one song I thought I heard undertones of Psychedelic Furs, Pearl Jam and Morphine. Yet it's all very new and original-sounding at the same time. The Kings are drawing me in to thier sound and their...thing; their vibe -- whatever you want to call the intangible aura that true rock music has.

Finally, somebody got a record deal that DESERVES a record deal. The Kings have talent in spades. And, most importantly, soul, which I believe is sorely missing in most modern music.

Maybe their fresh sound in a result of the boys growing up without the usual rock-pop influences; without the pablum of commercial radio.

So then I read their history. Holy crap! What a story: Their dad was a Pentacostal preacher. I know from my years in Texas what that means. They are the "Throw down your crutches!" people. They are the snake-handlers and the lay on-ers of hands people. From tent to tent the boys went in a purple Oldsmobile while papa preached...while daddy ranted and raved all over the deepest of backwater south. It's the stuff of gothic fiction.

Now they jet from country to country playing sold out stadiums where people worship THEM as idols. They themselves are god-like snake-handlers of rock. Currently KOL are up for three Grammys. What a story! What a great AMERICAN story they are.

While reading their bio I found that they are produced by (and early songs co-written by) none other than my old associate and Boston rock veteran Angelo Petraglia. Go Angelo, Go! He moved to Nashville years ago and has been working as a songwriter and producer with some really accomplished names in Americana, Country and Rock. Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, Patty Griffin and Brooks and Dunn are just a few names on Angelo's resume. I worked with him when he was in Boston with both Face to Face and The Immortals. I overdubbed and mixed the Immortals' "Two Sisters" on the acclaimed North by Northeast compilation back in '91.

Angelo worked with and developed KOL from the beginning, when the brothers were young and as raw as sugar cane. But he saw the talent and helped them develop it. Here's a nice piece about Angelo and his work with the Kings.

The kids started their lives rallying against the Devil and his deeds.

Now they play his music.

The Devil's, that is....

Awesome!

Here's a great Sound on Sound Magazine Article on the recording of Only By The Night: Secrets of the Mix Engineers: Jacquire King

Tyler Crashes Perry's Party

After all the buzz coming from both Joe Perry and Steven Tyler about Tyler's immenent departure from Aerosmith, what happened last night in New York stunned everybody, especially Joe Perry. When The Joe Perry Project went back stage at New York's Irving Plaza for a quick pause before their encore, the last person they expected to see was Mr. Tyler himself. But there he was, in the well-worn flesh. Apparently Tyler asked to sit in, and Perry oblidged. From his comments today, you'd gather that Perry did it as a favor to Steven and as a treat for the fans, not because he relished jamming with his old buddy. Once onstage, Tyler shouted something about not quitting Aerosmith, then, as soon as he finished barking out "Walk This Way," Tyler bolted in to the New York night. Today, undeterred, Perry stated to Billboard.com that the band is still planning to move forward without Tyler. Check out the full article and Perry's comments here.

Here's the YouTube of the "incident" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC7EK68tdEY&feature=player_embedded

Rockin' New Joe Perry Solo LP Was Produced Dangerously!

Danger! Joe Perry, Live Wire!

Edmeston, NY - October 6, 2009 - Engineer Pablo Arraya recently completed Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry's solo record, Have Guitar, Will Travel, where he acted as both the recording engineer for the final tracks and the mix engineer as well. Perry's solo album was released today, October 6, 2009. Arraya, a Grammy-winning engineer, brought his newly purchased Dangerous Monitor ST monitor controller to Perry's Boneyard Studio in Boston for the project. "The decision to buy the Monitor ST was directly related to working on the Joe Perry album," states Arraya. "His vintage Neve console has an amazing sound, and I wanted to add a more modern and flexible monitoring path. When I came in to the studio, Joe asked me to listen to a lot of Hendrix, Doors, AC/DC, and a lot of early Rolling Stones. He told me he wanted to get that sort of sound and feel. Perry told me 'I don't want it to sound pop-y and modern' - that was his vision at first, and things evolved from there."

On the Monitor ST choice, Arraya says, "Of all the things in a studio, the monitor section is an important one. It was time to do an upgrade to a better monitoring section - I had used the ST at a different studio and I loved how it felt, and Dangerous Music has a reputation for making great sounding gear." Arraya had been speaking with mastering engineer and good friend Dave Kutch, "He literally sold it to me on his recommendation - it was a no-brainer."

"When I got the Monitor ST, I hooked it up at Joe Perry's studio first," says Arraya about working on the Aerosmith guitarist's solo album. "I chose the Dangerous Music Montior ST over the Neve consoles' controls. I knew a lot of the mixing we were going to do was going to be like Hendrix-stlye, Doors-style, very 60's style mixing, where your drums are panned to one side, the bass to the other, your vocal shows up half way through the song. So I wanted to be able to have something to mute the left and the right speaker easily. On Joe's Neve console, you can't do that."

Comparing the Monitor ST to the sound of a large format console's monitoring, Arraya added, "When you bring the volume on the ST all the way down you still feel the punch of the kick and the power that's coming through the mix. And it doesn't matter what level it's at. That transparency for me is very, very important.

Since the studio does a lot of vocal overdubs, the headphone out puts and talkback get used a lot at Audio Piranha, "One of the things I like about the Monitor ST is that the mic for talkback is very dynamic, the person in the vocal booth can hear real well on their headphones. It sounds great. The headphone amp is really clean too. The Monitor ST is a very flexible box. I love the fact that you can do mono, the Dim function works really well, the ability to add the sub-woofer with the filter - that's a great option - calibrating the speakers is really easy; and the options for the inputs are super easy to use too." Another thing he likes about the Monitor ST, "When we want to update to 5.1, it's adding a box and you're there, you don't have to buy a whole new setup."

Pablo Arraya started his career with Sony Music Studios in 2000 after graduating from Middle Tennessee State University. The Native Bolivian quickly moved up the ladder to become one of the most requested engineers inside Sony's wide stable of talent. His diverse cultural background made him a versatile engineer. His engineering experience brought him to the attention of some of the most demanding international acts leading to a Grammy(r) in 2006 for Nancy Wilson's Turned To Blue album. Arraya leads sessions for all styles of music, and handles any studio situation with ease. He recently opened a new studio with the Audio Piranha Group on Park Avenue in Manhattan. Contact Pablo Arraya through the Audio Piranha Group website: Here

Visit Joe Perry's website for the latest news about his solo album Have Guitar, Will Travel at: http://www.joeperry.com

X-Cellent!

SSL, You Sexy Mynx, You!

Analog Planet has been tapped as a dealer for the SSL SuperAnalog Range! That includes the awesome X-Desk mini mixer! How cool is that? More on this later!

Annual TEC Awards Will Miss Les Paul

With the annual AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention fast approaching, it occurs to me that there will be a big part of the show missing this year: The presence, participation, and indeed, the spiritual leadership of Les Paul himself. For decades LP was a mainstay at the convention, walking the floor, shaking hands, meeting and greeting, and generally blessing the event like The High Pope of Audio. Most AES goers, myself included, consider Les Paul the father of modern recording.

Most notably, Mr. Paul will be missed at the annual Mix Magazine TEC awards ceremony (which accompanies AES every year), where he always presented the annual Les Paul award. The coveted award is given to the artist who, like Les himself, has most creatively blended musical achievement with the art and science of recording. Les presented the winner with, what else? A Les Paul guitar!


"Wow, this thing's heavy!" Les Presents THE AXE to 2007 Winner, Al Kooper

The list of Les Paul award-winners is impressive; artists like Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Brian Wilson, to name a few. Les Paul Winners 1991 to present

Here's a vid produced by Mix about The TEC Awards and The Les Paul Awards: TEC & Les Paul Award Highlights

This year's AES Show is at New York's Javitz Center. Appropriately, the 2009 TEC Awards will feature a special tribute to the beloved Mr. Paul...

Les Paul, The Guitar, The Man, The Legend

Here's a good bio/obit of LP from the AP. Les Paul Dies at 94.


Yours-Truly with Vanessa, one of my 3 LPs.

The Big Man of Memphis! 1941-2009

As I watch the Ted Kennedy funeral motorcade on TV, I'm reminded that the world lost another great American this month: Jim Dickinson, the legendary musician/engineer/producer of Muscle Shoals and Ardent Studios fame. He was one of the architects of the American sound, and specifically the Memphis sound. The Big Star Records Jim produced in the early '70s did a lot to change my musical direction, when they re-emerged in the '80s as alternative music prototypes for bands like REM and The Replacements. Those records were way ahead of their time and they sounded really fuckin' cool.

That was just the beginning of the Jim Dickinson legend and legacy. The man cast a big shadow.

Jim Dickinson on AllMusic

A Hot Blog About on a Cool Memphis Cat